


On a Day in Autumn

by Melinaa



Series: All the Seasons [1]
Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Autumn, F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, believe me, happy but a sad ending, if you want something entirely happy skip the last few lines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 09:11:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16281770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melinaa/pseuds/Melinaa
Summary: It was a cold day in the middle of autumn when I saw you for the first time. Our paths never meant to cross but they did on this very day.And I felt bad for letting you go without saying anything.It took me so long to tell you that I loved you.





	On a Day in Autumn

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> This is a little piece I wrote for our weekly challenge on the PL Amino and I thought I'd also share it here!  
> Believe me, this thing is happy. Well, except for the last few lines. Seriously, if you want this to be entirely happy, skip them. You've been warned.

On a Day in Autumn

 

It was a cold day in the middle of autumn when I saw you for the first time.

It was during your first week at Gressenheller University and you had the bad luck of getting one of the worst professors known on the entire campus. He had already given you much more work than some would get during the entire semester.

Our paths never meant to cross but they did on this very day. My professor had decided to go out to teach us about the different stages of the stone age and enjoy the last warm days of the year. You were carrying way too many books for it being only the beginning of the semester and for your first year here. I would have loved to help you but couldn’t just leave my class. This would have been an enormous sign of disrespect towards my professor. Yet, I felt bad for letting you carry all alone.

(And for letting you go without saying anything.)

It was two weeks later when I saw you again. You looked stressed out already, sitting in the library over a pile of books while an autumn storm raged outside. Your hair was tousled, and your shirt wrinkled as if you had been sitting here for days straight but I found you so beautiful. I couldn’t do anything but to stare at you and think how lovely you looked yet how stressed out you must be. I don’t envy you for your professor.

I couldn’t muster the courage to talk to you. But when I got myself some tea I figured you might want some coffee. My hands were shaking by the time I had made it to your table, but you were too busy noticing me and I was too scared to say anything. So, I just put the cup on your table and made my way back to my own things. I watched you and waited. I had planned to smile at you when you notice the coffee and would be wondering how it had appeared, but when you finally did I looked away, too scared for your reaction. Yet, when I dared look up I saw you smiling and gratefully taking a sip of your coffee.

(Yet, I felt down for letting you go without saying anything.)

The next time we saw each other you barely noticed me. It was raining heavily outside and you were sprinting towards the building. I left the door open for you because you didn’t bring an umbrella. Your hair was wet as well as your clothes and you damned the weather under your breath. You shortly thanked me, your eyes meeting mine for the first time.

That’s when I fell for you the first time. You looked so beautiful, your eyes showed me the gratitude my little gesture caused you. Your muttered “Thanks” was music to my ears. I loved your voice immediately and would recognize it again and again. I felt happy for making your day a bit brighter.

(But I felt down for letting you go without saying anything.)

It took me a year to muster all my courage to talk to you. I hadn’t forgotten you over exams or studying, of course not. I would see you in the library studying on some occasions, yet I never talked to you. I brought you coffee sometimes when you looked extremely stressed once again. Sometimes, I would see you looking around as if you tried to figure out who the mysterious stranger bringing you coffee was. But you couldn’t.

By now, I know your voice by heart. I sometimes heard you on the corridors talking to other. That’s how I had gotten to know that you were the best student in the exam about thermodynamics, that you got rid of that terrible professor in you second semester here, that your internship at a lab close by and that you like sugar in your coffee. That’s when I started to put some into yours. 

It was a cold day in October when I finally talked to you. Not for real, though. I had brought you a coffee just the other day and I had barely been sitting again when you had looked up. You had looked frustrated for missing the mysterious stranger. You had wrinkled your nose as you sometimes do when you had noticed my message. I had given you a little riddle to think about. I loved puzzles. I hoped you would as well.

I wanted to talk to you then, but all courage had left me, and it took me another week.

(I felt so bad for not saying more.)

I saw you outside. It was a sunny day, probably the last for the year. You were sitting on a bench, enjoying the late sun. You must have better professor now because you don’t look so stressed out anymore. Or maybe you have just adapted to university’s life by now.

I sat next to you and didn’t know how to start a conversation. I wasn’t sure if you had even noticed me with your eyes closed. “Can I help you?” you asked and looked at me wondering.

Your eyes blew me away once more and your voice made me smile. “You could tell me if you have solved my puzzle,” I answered not knowing how I had managed to muster the sudden courage.

You raised your eyebrows but smiled back at me a moment later. “So, you are the mysterious guy.” I wanted to apologize for intruding your private space, but suddenly you didn’t just smile, you beamed at me. “You truly are my hero. I don’t know if I had survived some days without coffee. How can I pay you back? Oh, your puzzle, I totally forgot! It is the falling leaves. People leave their houses to go see them when they change their colours and look just like fire. And then they turn brown and die. It’s sad and beautiful at the same time, don’t you think?”

You talked so much. I smiled because you seemed so excited to finally have met me. You didn’t know how much you were brightening my day. “Life itself is something truly amazing which we can see in something as simple as a falling leaf. And there is no need to pay me back anything. I just looked so stressed and I helped out.”

You tilted your head and asked me if I was studying biology. I laughed, _No, I’m studying archaeology_.

You had to go then because one of your colleagues had searched for you and told you about an emergency in the laboratory. You were so sorry you had to go but I could understand you. But only when I watched you leaving I remembered not having you asked for your name.

(I felt so stupid I didn’t ask you.)

The next time, it’s you who was seeking out me. When I arrived at my usual seat in the library I couldn’t spot you anywhere. But there was a note on my desk with a horrible handwriting on it. I would never have thought that you wrote like this.

 _In September, you pick me when I’m good and ready._  
In October, you cut me intentionally to make me look worse.  
In November, you threw me away like you never knew me. 

_Something I though of during my lecture about theoretical mechanics. Have fun!  
               – Claire _

That’s when I heard your name for the first time. _Claire_ suited you though I could not say why. It sounded as lovely as your voice.

When you came to my table after your lecture, your eyes were glowing with excitement. I smiled at you as you asked if I solved the riddle. “It’s a pumpkin,” I answered. “I cut them with my parents when I was younger.”

“So have I! I love it. I still cut pumpkins. How about you?” You seemed so carefree when you looked like this. I couldn’t figure out what exactly made me think it. It must have been your smile.

I denied your question and asked you about the emergency in the laboratory the last time we saw each other. You scratched the back of your head sheepishly and I wondered if I asked the wrong thing. “It wasn’t anything too bad. Dimitri made a little mistake and we usually help each other out then. Bill wouldn’t be too happy if he found out what the lab looks like when he’s not here.”

You explained to me that Bill was Dimitri’s boss and Dimitri was basically yours though he never acted like this. You told me that you did experiments on your own when Bill was not here, but it sometimes happened that you blew up something and stuck together when it came to the cleaning. You simply always called it an emergency so people around you wouldn’t ask. You laughed, and I smiled. I liked loyal people. I felt how I started to fall for you all over.

“You have a beautiful name. Claire suits you,” I said just because I had to. You blushed, and I probably never saw something cuter.

“Thank you. You never told me your name, though.”

“Hershel.”

_“Hershel.” You nodded, then smiled at me. “I’ll remember that.”_

 

We met more often after that. When I saw you in the library, I would sit with you instead of choosing a table close to yours. You started to bring me tea once I told you I liked Earl Grey with milk and no sugar. You told me you wanted to repay me for what I did for you when we didn’t even know each other.

As the year went on, I felt how I fell for you more and more. I loved your presence in the library, at some point, my days started to be grey when you weren’t around. I loved your concentrated gaze when you studied and the excitement in your voice when I asked you something about physics. The subject suited you.

I loved how interested you were whenever I told you about archaeology. I loved how loyal you were when Dimitri needed you. I hoped that he was a good guy and treated you well.

I started to feel protective of you. I started to feel deeper feelings for you. It somehow scared me. My last friend had been ripped away from me by death, because I was too weak. I was afraid that, at some point, I wouldn’t be able to save you as well.

But I fell in love with you. I couldn’t help it.

(But it took me until the next autumn to tell you. And then, it was you who made the first step.)

When you kissed me that day, I couldn’t believe my luck. I couldn’t believe that you felt the same for me.

(But it took me another week to kiss you.)

It was a sunny day of autumn. You loved autumn and I wanted to make it special for you. We went on a walk after we had finished studying. But the sun couldn’t warm the cold wind blowing through the streets.

You took my hand and breathed in deeply. “I love it when the cold air fills my lungs. It feels so refreshing,” you said out of nothing. You stopped and looked at me. “Don’t you think so?”

That’s when I finally kissed you. I couldn’t prevent myself from doing so. You were surprised but I felt you smile. I wouldn’t have been able to rip myself away from you. Your lips felt so warm and perfect on mine, it could be cheesy. But that’s how I felt. I couldn’t help it.

Though I was sure, it took me until the cold and rainy days in the end of autumn to tell you that I loved you.

It took me some more years until I wanted to ask you to marry me.

(I felt bad for waiting so long. Because it was _too_ long.)

It was also a day in autumn when I lost you.


End file.
